Four Oaks Mystery (ITV 1992, Mark McManus, Jeremy Brett)

The Four Oaks Mystery was a four part special that aired as part of ITV’s 1992 telethon. It featured one murder case investigated by four favourite ITV detective shows.

Although none of the four tecs meet, difficult in any case as the first story is a Sherlock Holmes Victorian set piece. The action begins when Holmes and Watson discover a gruesome double murder linked to a fortune in stolen jewels. A date with Moriarty means the case is left unsolved. Many years later Detective Inspector Van Der Valk picks up the threads of the case whilst investigating the murder of an Englishman found dead with a cache of antique jewellery.

Barry Foster as Van Der Valk. The numbers seen on screen were telephone numbers you could ring to pledge a donation amount.

Next the action moves to Scotland as Taggart discovers links to the Amsterdam murder whilst investigating the murder of a young woman in Glasgow. Taggart himself barely appeared in this though it was mainly left to his subordinates. Finally it is left to Chief Inspector Wexford to bring all the strands together and actually solve the case.

Shown across the two nights of the Telethon this was a great bit of fun only let down by the short ten minute length of each.

In the Taggart episode Mark McManus only appeared on screen a couple of times.

Liberty Crossing (go90 2018, Ashley Argota, Adam Faison)

In espionage tinged sitcom Liberty Crossing, a somewhat hopeless young intelligence analyst at the National Counterterrorism Center must untangle a terror plot whilst finding his feet amongst the office’s petty backstabbing and bureaucracy – while also dealing with his interfering family.

Absentia (AXN 2017, Stana Katic, Patrick Heusinger)

Thriller series Absentia is about FBI agent Emily Byrne (Stana Katic) who, while hunting one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers, disappears without a trace and is declared dead. Six years later, she is found in a cabin in the woods, barely alive and with no memory of the years she was missing. Returning home to learn her husband has remarried and her son is being raised by another woman, she soon finds herself implicated in a new series of murders.

Arctic Air (CBC 2012, Adam Beach, Pascale Hutton)

Canadian TV show Arctic Air is a one-hour adventure series set in the booming Arctic, about a maverick airline and the unconventional family who runs it. On the ground, Bobby, the headstrong business partner, struggles to save the airline from crashing financially while Mel, the cantankerous co-owner, keeps his crew of pilots in the air. Caught in the crossfire is Mel’s hotshot pilot daughter Krista.

As the series progresses the character-based drama will deliver hard-hitting emotional stories – from the romantic entanglement of Bobby and Krista, to the conflicts that spark between Bobby and his competitors, his business partners and even his extended family. There’s a new gold rush heating up under the permafrost, and there are new fortunes of diamonds and oil to claim.